Watching a football match on television, the way it used to be — on the sofa, without chatting or interacting online — may soon feel like a fading ritual. The next frontier is interactive streaming, and in Brazil there is already a reference point: CazéTV, a media platform backed by Cristiano Ronaldo, broadcasting the entire World Cup free-to-air in the country.
Matches are available on YouTube in high definition. But CazéTV is defined elsewhere, in its trajectory. Created in 2022 by Casimiro Miguel Ferreira, a 32-year-old streamer, it began on Twitch. That same year he moved into football streaming, partnering with LiveMode and bringing in investors.
Since then, CazéTV — named after its founder’s nickname — has moved quickly: the Qatar World Cup, 22 matches on YouTube and Twitch, then the Brazilian league, the Paris Olympics, the 2025 Club World Cup. Now, the entire World Cup across the United States, Mexico and Canada.
The numbers suggest it has landed. Brazil vs Morocco drew 12 million devices — phones, computers, televisions. A peak audience, and according to the Brazilian press, a record for a football match on YouTube. Multiple reasons sit behind it, though one keeps surfacing. The way younger audiences watch football has shifted. Interaction sits alongside viewing: chat, live betting, parallel streams. CazéTV’s core audience is millennial and Gen Z.
Globo, the Brazilian media giant that has held World Cup rights since Spain 1982, remains dominant in reach, but the balance has shifted. It now broadcasts only half the matches, and struggles to hold younger viewers drawn to more fluid formats.
For this World Cup, CazéTV has built a 24-hour live schedule through to the final on 19 July in New York. The programming is supported by a group of major sponsors. It has also secured exclusive domestic rights to highlights and selected player interviews. To widen its reach further, the platform has brought in a network of Brazilian influencers. Their combined audience pushes potential reach towards 30 million followers and around 200 million monthly views.